Airbus Delivered 21 Aircraft But Took No Orders In January
In its typical monthly fashion, Airbus has revealed its monthly order and delivery statistics for January. While the manufacturer had a reasonably successful December delivering 89 new aircraft, this didn’t carry across for reasons that we’ll discuss further down.
While many hope that aviation fares better in 2021 than last year, it seems that this won’t be the case. At least for the time being. Europe is currently in the grips of its second wave of COVID-19, bringing traffic close to the levels experienced during the worst days in April 2020. However, with the prospects of vaccines, things are looking up for the future.
21 aircraft delivered
In January, Airbus delivered just 21 aircraft. It may look low compared to the 89 aircraft delivered in December, but there’s a very good reason for this. The big aircraft manufacturers usually push to deliver as many aircraft as possible at the end of the year. But why?
By delivering aircraft before the clock strikes midnight on the first of January, the manufacturer can count them in the previous year’s figures. This saw JetBlue taking delivery of its first Airbus A220 on December 31st. Given the massive push to deliver aircraft before the year’s end, it is understandable.
So who took the 21 Airbus deliveries?
Fifteen customers took delivery of aircraft in January. They were (ordered by first delivery during January),
- Delta Air Lines (6) – 1x Airbus A220-100, 1x Airbus A220-300, 4x Airbus A321ceo
- SAS (2) – 2x Airbus A320neo
- Air China (4) – 4x Airbus A320neo
- Shenzen Airlines (1) – 1x Airbus A320neo
- Private Customer (1) – 1x A319neo
- Uganda Airlines (1) – 1x Airbus A330-800
- American Airlines (1) – 1x A321neo
- flynas (1) – 1x Airbus A320neo
- Turkish Airlines (1) – 1x Airbus A350-900
- Air Canada (1) – 1x Airbus A220-300
- China Eastern Airlines (1) – 1x Airbus A320neo
- Vietnam Airlines (1) – 1x Airbus A320neo
The vast majority of deliveries took place in the last ten days of January. According to data from Planespotters.net, it seems that the A319neo delivered to the private customer is an Airbus Corporate Jet. The aircraft, registered VP-CRR, flew from Hamburg to Basel for its cabin outfit. The aircraft was delivered to AMAC Aerospace.
No new orders
Unfortunately, Airbus received no new aircraft orders during January. Given the post-Christmas lull, tied with the impact of the latest COVID-19 variants, this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Indeed, we saw a similar state of affairs at the crisis’ height in April 2020. However, it wasn’t all bad news. While there were no new orders, there were also no cancelations.
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